Immigrants are worrying about social ties and finances during coronavirus

Carlo Handy Charles, McMaster Univer­sity

A recent Statis­tics Canada study reveals that immi­grants and refu­gees are more likely than Cana­dian-born indi­vi­duals to be worried about the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Forty-four per cent of immi­grants reported having high levels of concern about the main­te­nance of social ties and their ability to support one another during or after the pandemic ; 30 per cent of Cana­dian-born indi­vi­duals reported the same. The study confirms that diffe­rences between immi­grants and Cana­dian-born indi­vi­duals are similar for both men and women.

Immi­grants — often racia­lized women and men from the Global South — have become the back­bone of the Cana­dian economy and labour force during this crisis. They have filled low-paid jobs such as taxi drivers, farm workers and front-line care­gi­vers.

These are jobs that Cana­dian-born indi­vi­duals avoid. Immi­grants often take on these jobs not because they lack profes­sional quali­fi­ca­tions, but due to lack of oppor­tu­nity, non-recog­ni­tion of their educa­tional creden­tials or a lack of “Cana­dian experience.”

Canada is an immi­gra­tion country and a world leader with respect to immi­grant and refugee reset­tle­ment. While all indi­vi­duals in Canada are coping with the impacts of COVID-19, it is crucial to unders­tand how immi­grants and refu­gees are expe­rien­cing the pandemic and how to help cushion its impact.

Immigrant status and social ties

Landed immi­grants, refu­gees, migrant workers and inter­na­tional students may have different migra­tion expe­riences but their status as foreign-born or non-national indi­vi­duals have simi­la­ri­ties, espe­cially when looking at their social ties during the pandemic.

In Canada, immi­grant social ties are often unders­tood as member­ships to Cana­dian recrea­tional or reli­gious orga­ni­za­tions. However, research also shows that local networks of acquain­tances, friends and services — some­times ethnic, some­times multi-ethnic or neigh­bou­rhood networks, and various commu­nity groups — contri­bute to and streng­then immi­grant social ties.

Before COVID-19, some immi­grants already missed the kinds of human inter­ac­tion they were used to in their home coun­tries – such as fami­liar faces, gree­ting friends and fami­liar products in stores. Previous research has shown that elderly immi­grants struggle with social isola­tion and lone­li­ness more than people born in Canada.

Social isola­tion resul­ting from immi­grant status is an impor­tant deter­mi­nant of immi­grants’ physical and mental health. It is there­fore impor­tant for govern­ments and civil society to unders­tand how their unique expe­riences during the pandemic may impact their health outcomes and well-being more than those of Cana­dian-born people.

Refugees’ concerns about social risks

Immi­grants, espe­cially refu­gees, are also more concerned than Cana­dian-born indi­vi­duals — 53 per cent compared to 37 per cent — about the possi­bi­lity of civil disorder during the pandemic.

Although they have different social networks than those born in Canada, refu­gees may be more sensi­tive to certain social risks, such as civil disarray or the ability to support each other.

Many refu­gees lived in camps, were held in deten­tion centres or tran­sited through various coun­tries before acces­sing perma­nent legal status in Canada. In my research, I have found that some Haitian asylum-seekers had made an arduous 11,000-kilometre journey from Brazil to the U.S. — often on foot and under diffi­cult circum­stances — to claim refuge in Canada.

This affects refu­gees’ health, and may also reac­ti­vate some trauma related to their pre-migra­tion and migra­tion jour­neys. This pandemic is a period of high uncer­tainty and social risk ; refu­gees may find them­selves reli­ving some trau­matic expe­riences, as research has shown on the expe­rience of Syrian refu­gees or the Viet­na­mese “boat people” who came to Canada.

Research on influenza suggests that refu­gees and asylum-seekers may be required to adjust to a double coping stra­tegy during pande­mics. First, they must comply with public health measures, such as physical distan­cing. The second is their adjust­ment to poten­tial trau­matic migra­tion expe­riences and social stigma. It is expe­dient to pay atten­tion to how social stigma may affect refu­gees.

Concerns about socio-economic impacts

Immi­grants are also signi­fi­cantly more likely than Cana­dian-born indi­vi­duals to report that the crisis would have a “major” or “mode­rate” impact on their finances. While 27 per cent of Cana­dian-born men reported that the crisis would have an impact on their ability to meet finan­cial obli­ga­tions, 43 per cent of immi­grant men reported the same.

The most recent labour market figures for April show that Canada lost nearly two million jobs in sectors like construc­tion, manu­fac­tu­ring, retail trade, accom­mo­da­tion and food services. For immi­grants, refu­gees and asylum-seekers, a job loss increases their preca­rity, espe­cially among refu­gees who have been under­going a decrease in earnings over the past 15 years in Canada.

At the same time, preca­rious employ­ment is on the rise with vulne­rable popu­la­tions like immi­grants and refu­gees who face higher rates of margi­na­li­za­tion than Cana­dian-born individuals.

In the areas of Toronto and Mont­réal where there is a greater propor­tion of low-income earners, new racia­lized immi­grants and high unem­ploy­ment rates, resi­dents have higher rates of infec­tions and hospi­ta­li­za­tions than people in other parts of those cities.

No matter how long immi­grants and refu­gees have lived in Canada, their foreign-born status may affect them more than Cana­dian-born indi­vi­duals during and after the pandemic.

Potential remedy

Some coun­tries have used the pandemic as a pretext to deny basic human rights to migrants by imple­men­ting depor­ta­tions or propa­ga­ting social stigma.

This may add to immi­grants’ and refu­gees’ concerns about the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 on their lives. To help mediate these impacts in Canada, we should reco­gnize the vital contri­bu­tion of immi­grants, refu­gees and other migrants as some of the heroes of the pandemic.

Federal, provin­cial and muni­cipal govern­ments in Canada must adopt the 14 prin­ciples of protec­tion for migrants and displaced people during COVID-19 ; written by migra­tion experts, they provide a basis for advo­cacy and educa­tion during the pandemic.

Now more than ever, as migra­tion resear­cher Steven Vertovec writes, migrants deserve empathy. To promote empathy, govern­ments and civil society should eluci­date struc­tural and socio-economic condi­tions and vulne­ra­bi­li­ties faced by many migrants and refu­gees, just as the UN Deve­lop­ment Programme and the Inter­na­tional Labour Orga­ni­za­tion are doing with regard to COVID-19 and people subject to poverty worldwide.

Whether they’re refu­gees, newco­mers or other migrants, they are front-line workers who not only sustain the Cana­dian economy but also allow others to remain safely isolated at home.

There­fore, it’s impe­ra­tive that federal and provin­cial govern­ments consider the unique chal­lenges faced by immi­grants and refu­gees as they imple­ment poli­cies to help people in Canada recover from the impacts of the pandemic.

Carlo Handy Charles, Vanier Scholar, Trudeau Foun­da­tion Scholar and Member of COVID-19 Impact Committee, CI-Migra­tions Fellow, and Joint Ph.D. Student in Socio­logy and Geography, McMaster Univer­sity

Cet article est repu­blié à partir de The Conver­sa­tion sous licence Crea­tive Commons. Lire l’article original.